2002 looks to have been a record year for the German video and DVD market, according to the video industry trade body.

According to statistics prepared by the GfK market research institute, turnover for the sector increased by over 22% to Euros 1.15bn in the first eleven months of 2002 compared to the previous year.

The GfK's latest figures for January-November 2002 reported that two thirds of the sell-through sector's turnover of Euros 830m - Euros 554m - was generated by the sale of DVDs. 28.2m DVDs were sold in this period, almost double 2001's total of 14.8m, while the number of VHS cassettes sold fell by 8% to 23.9m units.

Meanwhile, the rental sector, which increased its turnover year-on-year by 3% to a total Euros 320.9m, is still dominated by the VHS format, although rental DVDs made up more than a third of the sector's revenues with Euros 120.7m.

Universum's release of the 2001 blockbuster Manitou's Shoe was the top VHS sell-through title - ahead of Warner Bros' Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone and The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring - and was only beaten by Peter Jackson's epic in the year's DVD sell-through Top 10.

According to GfK, the average price of DVDs in the first eleven months of 2002 was Euros 19.67 (some Euros 2 cheaper than for the same period a year before), while sell-through VHS cassettes cost Euros 11.51 each on average.

TOP 10 / SELL-THROUGH DVDs - GERMANY 2002

1 The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring Warner
2 Manitou's Shoe Universum
3 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone Warner
4 Star Wars: Episode II 20th Century Fox
5 Ice Age 20th Century Fox
6 The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Special Edition) Warner
7 Matrix Warner
8 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Euro Video
9 Ocean's Eleven Warner
10 Spider-Man Columbia TriStar
(source: Media Control)